Aeroelastic Tailoring of a Civil Tiltrotor Configuration

Abstract

Progress in establishing an analysis package and design/optimization framework for preliminary design of a civil tiltrotor aircraft is reported. Updates to the sizing/performance program VASCOMP and Equivalent LAminated Plate Solution ELAPS are described. Correlation of this updated ELAPS (now including shear panels) and a state-space unsteady aerodynamic analysis, PWAKE, with reference results from the Automated STRuctural Optimization System, ASTROS, is shown. A generic UNIX-based, flexible executive system for multidisciplinary design/ optimization tasks is presented. The framework features a central data base, provisions for parallel analysis execution on different host computers connected to the same file server, local sensitivity calculation using finite differencing, global sensitivity calculation using the Global Sensitivity Equation (GSE), and a utility allowing different levels of user control. A simple sample case demonstrates proper framework operation and practical advantages in accuracy in the GSE approach versus global finite differencing.